Promoting learning and innovation in organizations through complexity leadership theory

Influence of kindergarten principals' contingent rewards on teachers' creative teaching performance: Testing a moderated-mediated model

BACKGROUND

Although research has increased the current understanding of creative teaching, evidence on the factors that influence this behavior and the underlying mechanisms remains limited.

OBJECTIVE

This study, grounded in conservation of resources theory, proposed and empirically examined the relation between contingent reward leadership (CRL) among Chinese kindergarten principals and teachers' creative teaching performance (CTP). In addition, the study assessed the mediating effect of organizational innovation support (OIS), bureaucratic organizational culture (BOC), and innovative organizational culture (IOC), as well as the moderating effect of ideological psychological contracts (IPCs), to provide robust insights into how CRL can motivate kindergarten teachers' CTP.

METHODS

A total of 518 kindergarten teachers aged 20-55 years participated in the study. Structural equation model analysis was conducted to examine the multiple mediating effects of OIS, BOC, and IOC, as well as the moderating effect of IPC in the relation between CRL and CTP.

RESULTS

OIS served as a mediator in the relation between CRL and CTP. OIS and BOC played a chain mediating role in the relation between CRL and CTP. OIS and BOC played a chain mediating role in the relation between CRL and CTP. Additionally, IPC positively moderated the indirect relation of CRL on CTP via OIS.

CONCLUSIONS

Kindergarten principals should pay attention to the positive impact of leadership style and organizational culture on teachers' innovative behavior. Moreover, prioritizing the improvement of IPCs would benefit the development of innovative behavior.

Video-Based Action Learning and Research: Increased Transformative Capacity among Team Leaders of a Youth Care Protection Agency

Public organizations need to learn and evolve continuously to keep up with emerging complexities. This may require a transformational organizational change, including culture, strategy, structure and working methods for service delivery. The aim of the study is to understand how a video-based reflection method could support an action learning (AL) and action research (AR) process to enhance transformative capacity among a group of team leaders in a changing youth care organization. Sixteen team leaders participated in the video-reflection process. The steps were: (1) all leaders were filmed leading a team meeting; (2) each leader reflected on a peer’s video; and (3) reflections were analyzed, and themes were abstracted. (4) Related to these themes, video fragments were compiled to share with the leaders in Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), where the leaders discussed the videos and formulated key lessons. (5) Key lessons were summarized in a report. Data collection included: video-recordings, evaluation sheets and field notes acquired during the process of video-reflection and seven months later, interviews with team leaders (n = 11) about their learning experiences. This study shows greater transformative capacity in most of the team leaders. Awareness of their work practice, as well as the process of reflexive monitoring during the FGDs, contributed to widening the scope of their reflective reality, and thus their sense of agency in adapting their practices, such as moderating their occasionally controlling behavior, being able to structure the team meetings effectively, and understanding when to use specific leadership roles.

Review of empirical research on leadership and organizational learning

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate how the relationships between different leadership approaches and organizational learning have been examined in the literature, from which future research areas can be recommended.

Design/methodology/approach

This systematic literature review applies matrix method to examine major literature in leadership and organizational learning. A total of 57 peer-reviewed English publications from 45 journals were selected and analyzed.

Findings

The synthesis of these empirical studies revealed as follows: the relationship between leadership and organizational learning has been mostly quantitatively investigated in many countries and sectors; multiple leadership styles have been identified to ameliorate processes, levels and capabilities of organizational learning and transformational leadership still remains the most commonly used style; there are mediating mechanism and boundary conditions in the relationship between leadership and organizational learning.

Research limitations/implications

The literature search in this study was mainly focused on English articles only; therefore, some papers in other languages may have not been included.

Practical implications

This review offers an overall picture of the existing knowledge of organizational learning and leadership that will be fruitful for practitioners to understand and replicate these concepts.

Originality/value

There are little systematic literature reviews on the relationship between leadership and organizational learning. This paper is among the first systematic reviews to analyze how leadership has been associated with organizational learning and provide potential research directions.

Leadership attributes and their impact on work-related attitudes

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the emergence of employee leadership attributes and, further, examine its impact on employee work-related attitudes in terms of the competitive context of higher education institutions.

Design/methodology/approach

A data from a survey of 245 academic employees in Malaysian public universities were tested and analyzed on the 12 proposed hypotheses.

Findings

The results reveal that the emergence of employee leadership attributes, independently, has a significantly positive effect on work-related attitudes. Specifically, executive leadership has a significantly positive effect on organizational commitment, career satisfaction and job satisfaction, while innovative leadership has a significantly positive effect on organizational commitment and career satisfaction. In contrast, adaptive and effective leadership is associated when explaining organizational commitment, career satisfaction and job satisfaction, while innovative leadership is associated when explaining job satisfaction.

Practical implications

Academic scholars/leaders in higher education should realize that the emergence of employee leadership attributes has a positive effect on work-related attitudes, such as organizational commitment, career satisfaction and job satisfaction.

Originality/value

The paper extends the knowledge regarding complexity leadership theory which explains the emergence of employee leadership attributes naturally and, further, provides empirical evidence.

The resident physician as leader within the healthcare team

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore inter-professional clinicians' perspectives on resident leadership in the context of inter-professional teams and to identify a definition for leadership in the clinical context. In 2015, CanMEDS changed the title of one of the core competencies from manager to leader. The shift in language was perceived by some as returning to traditional hierarchical and physician-dominant structures. The resulting uncertainty has resulted in a call to action to not only determine what physician leadership is but to also determine how to teach and assess it. Design/methodology/approach Focus groups and follow-up individual interviews were conducted with 23 inter-professional clinicians from three pediatric clinical service teams at a large, Canadian tertiary-level rehabilitation hospital. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to inductively analyze the data. Findings Data analysis resulted in one overarching theme: leadership is collaborative - and three related subthemes: leadership is shared; leadership is summative; and conceptualizations of leadership are shifting. Research limitations/implications Not all members of the three inter-professional teams were able to attend the focus group sessions because of scheduling conflicts. Participation of additional clinicians could have, therefore, affected the results of this study. The study was conducted locally at a single rehabilitation hospital, among Canadian pediatric clinicians, which highlights the need to explore conceptualization of leadership across different contexts. Practical implications There is an evident need to prepare physicians to be leaders in both their daily clinical and academic practices. Therefore, more concerted efforts are required to develop leadership skills among residents. The authors postulate that continued integration of various inter-professional disciplines during the early phases of training is essential to foster collaborative leadership and trust. Originality/value The results of this study suggest that inter-professional clinicians view clinical leadership as collaborative and fluid and determined by the fit between tasks and team member expertise. Mentorship is important for increasing the ability of resident physicians to develop collaborative leadership roles within teams. The authors propose a collaborative definition of clinical leadership based on the results of this study: a shared responsibility that involves facilitation of dialog; the integration of perspectives and expertise; and collaborative planning for the purpose of exceptional patient care.

The need to succeed - learning experiences resulting from the implementation of value-based healthcare

Purpose The aim of this study has been to explore learning experiences from the two first years of the implementation of value-based healthcare (VBHC) at a large Swedish University Hospital. Design/methodology/approach An explorative design was used in this study. Individual open-ended interviews were carried out with 19 members from four teams implementing VBHC. Qualitative analysis was used to analyse the verbatim transcripts of the interviews. Findings Three main themes pinpointing learning experiences emerged through the analysis: resource allocation to support implementation, anchoring to create engagement and dedicated, development-oriented leadership with power of decision. Resource allocation included the need to set aside time and administrative resources and also the need to adjust essential IT-systems. The work of anchoring to create engagement involved both patients and staff and was found to be a never-ending task calling for deep commitment. The hospital top management's explicit decision to implement VBHC facilitated the implementation process, but the team leaders' lack of explicit management mandate was experienced as obstructing the process. The development process contributed not only to single-loop learning but also to double-loop learning. Originality/value Learning experiences drawn from implementing VBHC have not been studied before, and thus the results of this study could be of importance to managers and administrators wanting to implement this concept in their respective organizations.